300th Episode: What’s your favorite?
But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids
But Why celebrates its 300th episode by sharing fan favorites from listeners around the world, highlighting beloved topics like space, dinos
Key takeaways
- Listeners' favorite episodes often center on science, nature, and personal curiosity about how things work.
Main topics
- Listener favorites
- Space and astronomy
Notable quotes
I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to give you a new way to see.
Conclusion
But Why continues to thrive through curiosity, community, and shared l
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) Hey there, I'm Kendra Adachi and my show, The Lazy Genius Podcast, helps you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't, and you get to decide what matters. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to give you a new way to see. Episodes of The Lazy Genius Podcast are full of compassionate time management tips and permission slips to do what makes sense for you. New Speaker 4 (0:22) episodes drop every Monday. Follow and listen to The Lazy Genius Podcast on the free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (0:50) This is But Why, a podcast for curious kids from Vermont Public. I'm Jane Lindholm, and today we're celebrating a very special milestone. It's our 300th episode! That's a lot of but why, and a lot of questions we've answered. We've been making this show for 10 years now, and our first generation of listeners has probably moved on to college. How long have you been listening? Maybe you've listened to all 300 episodes. some more than once. That would be like 150 hours or more of But Why, so I hope your adults like it as much as you do. But maybe you're a newer listener. That's great. Not only do you have lots of episodes to choose from that we've already made, but we're still making new ones, so stick around. We think 300 episodes is a big deal, so we wanted to celebrate with all of you, our listeners and question askers. We asked you to share your favorite episodes, and wow, we got some great recordings from you. So we're going to listen to them today. Let's dive right in with some thoughts on our most far-out episodes. Speaker 8 (1:59) My name is Amari. I am six years old. I am from Tucson, Arizona. My favorite But Why episode is Why Does Space Have So Many Planets? Happy Speaker 7 (2:09) birthday, But Why! I'm Dhriti, and I'm from India. I'm nine years old, and my favorite episode is Where Do Constellations Come From? Because it has me! I'm Speaker 1 (2:22) Laura. I live in Burnsville, Minnesota, and I'm nine years old. My favorite episode was the one about constellations, because I really like space, and stars, and galaxies, and supernovas, and nebulas, and all that sort of Speaker 8 (2:37) stuff. My name is Eleanor. I'm nine and three quarters and I live in Mayo, Ireland. I love all your episodes, but my favorite was how do dinosaurs leave tracks? I enjoy how you talk about which dinosaurs made the tracks. And I just love to be a paleontologist when I grow up. When I hear the word dinosaur, I go into dinosaur mode. My name is Chase. I'm six years old and I live in... I'm in town, Pennsylvania, and I like the dinosaur episode because I like dinosaurs. Speaker 1 (3:17) Hello, my name is William. I'm 11 years old. I'm from East Brunswick, New Jersey. My favorite episode is Why Do Trains Run on Tracks? because I love trains. Speaker 1 (3:30) Hi, my name is Sidoth. I live in Canberra, Australia. I'm eight years old, and my favorite episode was the episode about trains. Hi, my name's Lyle. I'm five years old. I'm from Worcester, Ohio. My favorite episode is who the size of our robots look like, because I like to learn about the robot dog. Speaker 2 (3:56) That was one of the really cool things I've gotten to do for this podcast. When I started making But Why, one of my goals was to be able to learn and see and do cool things. So I was really excited when we got the chance to visit a manufacturing facility near us that uses robot dogs in its work. These dog robots can help sense dangerous chemicals so people don't have to be put in harm's way. And since they are robots, not actual dogs, they're not in danger either. But even though they're made out of metal, they can still roll over and get a belly rub. just like a real dog. One of your favorite things to ask us about is how our bodies work. So I'm not surprised that a lot of you told us the bodies episodes are your favorites. Here's Naomi's top pick. Speaker 1 (4:42) I'm from Everett, Washington. My favorite episode of But Why is the one about glasses and eyeballs. Hello, my name is Kiyomi. I'm seven years old and I live in Calgary, Alberta. And my favorite episode is How Does the Heart Work? because it teaches me more about my heart and my body. Speaker 2 (5:01) A few weeks ago, a family of But Why listeners from Ottawa, Canada stopped by our studio on the way to a family vacation. The kids were Alex. My name is Alex. How old are you? Five. And his sister Ava. Ava told us about her favorite episode. Speaker 8 (5:17) I'm 10. I'm from Ottawa, Canada. And my favorite episode is the blood donation one. I like blood, and it was just fun to listen to, and then I liked it, so I just kept listening to it. My name is Talia. I'm nine years old and I live in Annandale, Virginia. My favorite episode is when Jane donates blood. I think it's very descriptive and it gives you a very good perspective of how it would happen if one of us actually decided to do it. Hi, I'm Ethan. I'm seven years old and I'm from Christchurch, New Zealand. And my favorite episode is... The one about blood, because I didn't know much about blood. Speaker 2 (6:04) That episode is another example of when we got to go somewhere really interesting for the podcast. I visited a Red Cross blood donation center to get some insight into what happens when people donate their blood for other people who need it, and why those other people might need that blood. To make the episode, and to help make the needles seem a little less frightening, I let the nurse working there, Linda, take some of my blood while we talked. I would prefer to use my right arm because I'm left-handed. Speaker 5 (6:33) So will Speaker 2 (6:35) you describe what you're doing while Speaker 5 (6:36) you're doing it? So we have three bags, but we're only collecting red cells in one bag. The other two bags are for separating the components of your blood, the white cells and the red cells. Speaker 5 (6:51) And then we have sample tubes that we have to scan as well because we have to do different tests. When we take your blood, we test your blood type every time you come in, and there's different other tests Speaker 2 (7:02) that we do. And so you're testing my blood mostly to make sure that my blood is safe to give to somebody else who needs it. Exactly, yes. You are correct. Speaker 5 (7:15) All right, so I'm just going to mark your vein with a purple surgical marker. How much blood do you take? We take a pint. Actually, depending on your weight, we take a little bit more. We take about 50 mils more than a pint. Speaker 2 (7:33) Now, some people really don't like needles. What would you say to reassure people who don't really like having a needle in them? Speaker 5 (7:40) It's very safe, and honestly, the finger stick is usually the worst part of it. Once the needle's in, you don't even feel it. And so if you think of the reason why you're doing it, you know, you're trying to save a life. You're trying to extend someone's life. It's so important. It's so important. It doesn't hurt. Once you get used to it, the first time you do it, you're a little nervous. But once you do it a few times, it's not as bad. And they Speaker 2 (8:06) always give you snacks. Speaker 5 (8:07) Yes, yes. And drinks. Yep. Alright, and you can watch or look away. Do Speaker 2 (8:15) most people watch or do most people look away? Most Speaker 5 (8:17) people Speaker 2 (8:17) look away. Speaker 5 (8:18) Good job. Speaker 2 (8:22) So you couldn't hear it because it doesn't make any noise, but Linda put a needle into my vein and the blood is flowing through now into a bag. Yeah, Speaker 5 (8:31) and it takes about five to ten minutes. Some people are faster, some people are a little slower depending on the size of the vein, placement of the needle.